If only there were more trees to be torn down, we could utilize them . . . to fill newspapers with the endless depressing stories out there about the environment and all its hapless inhabitants. The good news is, to break the doom-and-gloom cycle of cynicism, we have Dr. Jane Goodall — internationally renowned primatologist and United Nations Messenger of Peace best known for her study of chimpanzee behavior in Tanzania — to offer a remarkably optimistic point of view in her new book, Hope for Animals and Their World (Grand Central). Hope details how a variety of endangered species have been rescued from the brink of extinction — it’s a “you can do it” ecological pep talk. I caught Dame Goodall — who travels 300 days a year advocating for animals — over the phone in New York.

In the book, you introduce us to Old Blue, the last-remaining female South Pacific black robin who “saved” her species. The researcher who studied and rescued her has an approach that seems to reflect your own philosophy, which has been controversial in scientific circles in that it anthropomorphizes animals.That’s my favorite story ─ that set me off on this whole track! I met Don Merton a long time ago. And that story is soooo amazing. And that man is such a lovely man. You know, he loves those little black robins. And he’s not ashamed of saying he loves them. It’s not so much anthropomorphizing, but it’s that one should be totally objective and you shouldn’t have any empathy with your subjects, and you shouldn’t give them names, and they can’t have personalities, and they ought to be numbered, and they don’t have feelings. But, of the amazing people that I’ve talked to in writing this book, I haven’t found any who actually felt that. Sometimes they felt they ought to put that front out in order to get funding. But down underneath, they care passionately about their animals. And a lot of them will actually admit it. If they’ve retired ─ they’re very happy to admit it then!

What are your feelings on the other side of the argument?
Well, scientists are supposed to be able to be objective. It’s almost never true, but certainly with animal behavior it’s not really true. Take chimpanzees, more like us than anything else. When I first got into this field, chimpanzees were considered an excellent model for learning about human disease ─ including mental disease. And so they were put in small cages in labs to be studied. But at the same time, there was a huge reluctance to admit the equally striking similarities in intellectual ability, and emotion, and feelings. So, to me this was illogical and not at all scientific ─ being on one side and not the other. So, fortunately, my teacher when I was a child taught me that animals did have personalities, minds, and feelings. And that was my dog. And I don’t think anybody who shares their lives with an animal, in a meaningful way, would deny them personalities, minds, and feelings.

Did you say the teacher was your dog?
Yes. My teacher was my dog. I think many people have had teachers like that.

Dead Wessex’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles That we have not yet fully outlived the Victorians seems self-evident, given the political right's priggishly austere agenda for women's reproductive health and rights.

Review: Trishna If nothing else, Michael Winterbottom's updating of Tess of the D'Urbervilles to present-day India proves that Thomas Hardy will depress you no matter what the setting.

Head back inside for fall’s theater My own first show of the season will be this weekend's opening of Tess of the D'Urbervilles , the classic Thomas Hardy tragedy of the ravished Tess, mounted by the newly formed DEAD WESSEX FAIR (September 14-23, at the sadly soon-to-be former Lucid Stage).

Review: Born To Be Wild 3D This short, painless family pleaser, available in IMAX 3D, not only promotes the wisdom of environmental conservation but also shows how people can learn from other creatures on the planet.

The 30-year metal reign of Tom Araya and Slayer Suicide, serial killers, Satan worship, demonic possession, hatred, violence, and depravity: succeeding as a heavy-metal band through the '80s and early '90s meant being able to withstand a gauntlet of accusations as the cause of all of society's ills.

Review: Surviving Progress Despite prestigious talking heads like Margaret Atwood, Jane Goodall, and Stephen Hawking, there is nothing new here beyond what every conscientious liberal already knows is wrong with the world.

2012’s many theatrical joys The past year in Portland theater saw a gain, a loss, and a move: First, summer brought us the first annual PortFringe festival and the inaugural Portland Performing Arts Festival.

HIGH AND LOW CULTURE FROM JAPAN | June 02, 2010 Attention, admirers of quirky kitsch and over-the-top aesthetics: hit PAUSE on that Belle and Sebastian record for a second.

GOING FOR GOLD GLOSSARY | February 17, 2010 The Summer Olympics are fairly easy to comprehend for the average couch tuber: people running, hoisting, swimming in synch — all fairly quotidian activities.

RAINBOW NATION | January 28, 2010 After a torturous history of being treated like second-class citizens, the black population in this country stunned the world by pulling off the unimaginable: voting a black man in as president.

INTERVIEW: OZZY OSBOURNE | January 29, 2010 Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."